Author’s note- Yes, I did say that there wouldn’t be a chapter of Ability today because I would be working on The Elements of Terra. But, I admit, stopping to write another story in the middle of a battle scene was impossible for me… And plus, I finished the chapter by yesterday, it's just I had no internet.

‘Coughs suspiciously’

So with that said, enjoy~

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A Battle to the Death

For a second, I could see the shock on her face. Then it quickly turned to smoldering anger. She stood up and started yelling at me.

Helen- “Why are you here! Here to mock me? I-”

Me- “Shut up! Now’s not the time for that!”

I looked around nervously, wondering which entrance they would come from.

Me- “You shouldn’t be here!”

Helen- “What does it have to do with you where I go!? I can go where I want! And what about you? Why can you be here, but I can’t?”

I put my hand on my forehead, frustrated. This woman would get us both sniped! We’d be killed in an instant. I’d have to improvise.

Me- “You see that area, at the end of the skyline? Go there and hide among the crates. Now!”

Helen finally started to realize something was going on, but she still seemed angry.

Helen- “What the f*ck is wrong with you, why would I have to hide in the crates? You...”

I tuned her out, and in a moment later there was movement in the corner of my eye. I looked over, and my eyes widened.

Me- “They’re here!”

I put my finger to my lips and then turned off the flashlight. Then I dropped down to a belly crawl; my heart seemed to be pounding out of my chest. Looking over the edge, I saw one of the people hoist a sniper rifle and release the safety. He/she then pointed it up at the skyline. Helen was still standing!

Without thinking, I leaped as best as I could and tackled Helen. And a moment later, I heard the sound of a gunshot firing.

“Bam!”

Helen froze; her muscles went totally stiff. She whispered out weakly, in disbelief,

Helen- “I almost died…”

Ignoring what she said, I grabbed her arm and started furiously crawling towards the crates. And all the thoughts about counter attacking had left my mind; all I could think about was getting to safety.

Me- “Helen, we have to get to the crates!”

I could see a dark silhouette trembling beside me, before it started crawling frenziedly as well.

And when we got to the crates, Helen was hysterical. But seeing her in such a craziness actually calmed me down. It was like seeing someone with their arm just cut off, yet you only got a cut on the hand. You couldn’t just start complaining about how hurt you were, if you glanced at the missing arm, could you?

Helen- “I don’t want to die, I don’t want to die, I don’t want to die!”

Me- “Hide in one of the crates! Now!”

This time, she couldn’t refuse. Hurriedly, she scrambled to open a top and crawl inside. I, on the other hand crawled over to observe their movements. The sniper was still posted, watching for our every movement, while the others were walking towards the doors, trying one by one systematically. They were almost at the right door.

I had to hurry! First, I’d have to take out the sniper if I was going to have a chance.

I drew heat from the auditorium, and put the point inside the end of the barrel. Smiling evilly, it only took a thought to ignite the flame.

“Boom!”

The weapon misfired, and the explosion backfired into his face! Chance!

Helen- “Don’t leave me here!”

I ignored her and ran to the other side of the skyline. And right as I reached the end, the gunmen had found the right door. They started bashing it, trying to get it open. The sniper wasn’t moving.

I went down the staircase, and opened the door to the room. The ladder was still retracted, and the door jam wasn’t moving. I smiled. It looked like the door jam would work.

But suddenly, I heard the sound of rapid fire gunshots, and then the door jam was filled with holes. Next, the door was smashed open, sending scrap wood all over the room!

I started inwardly panicking; what should I do? And as they walked in, I remembered the room was full of wood. I could burn them all!

Sending two heat points down their barrels, I looked down eagerly.

“Boom!”

Their weapons misfired, and they staggered back, disoriented. But they wouldn’t be for long. I gathered multiple heat points from the theater room, and sent them all around the room next to scrap wood.

Me- “DIE!”

My eyes had somewhat of an insane look within, and I disrupted all the heat balls at once.

“WOOSH!”

The room lit up into flames! And when they realized that they couldn’t get back out, they all started screaming hysterically. I didn’t want to see the rest…

I closed the door and left the room, my hands trembling intensely. I vomited beside the staircase, but I still determinedly climbed up. To keep myself sane, I continued repeating to myself.

Me- “They tried to kill you! Nathaniel, you didn’t do anything wrong…”

But that didn’t make much of a difference, as I vomited again once I reached the top of the stairs.

Still feeling sickly and scared, I looked down at the stage. And two people were standing there. But unlike the troops, I could see their faces. One was a skinny male, and the other was a muscular, female? Was this my support?

Observing them more closely, they seemed to be watching a video. And at one point, they simultaneously threw away their weapons. My heart sunk. Enemies. WHY COULDN’T THEY JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!?

I rushed across the skyline to see if I could find something useful among the crates. And as soon as I drew near, Helen shrieked,

Helen- “No, please! Don’t kill me!”

She came out sobbing with her hands in the air, but when she saw it was me she drew silent.

Helen- “They haven’t come up yet?”

Me- “They will.”

I started sifting through stuff, looking for something sharp.

Helen- “There’s nothing useful there except this.”

She handed me what seemed to be a remote of some kind.

Helen- “I found it in the crate I was hiding in.”

Looking at it closely, I recognized it as the remote switch to turn on all the ultra bright lights. At a critical moment, I could use it as a flash bang!

I went to go, but Helen grabbed me, while going hysterical once again.

Helen- “No, no no no NO! I can’t take this; you can’t leave me here like this! What if next time it’s not you coming, but them!? What am I supposed to do then?”

Me- “That doesn’t concern me. If it’s not me coming, then I’ll never be coming back.”

Helen- “Oh my god!”

She started sobbing, gripping me tighter. But in this situation, I found it annoying, and I increasingly felt the need to do something or wait for my death.

Me- “Let go of me! If we want a chance at survival, I’m going to need to take them out!”

Shaking off her hands with a twist of my arm, I ran towards the other end of the skyline. But suddenly, I saw the man elongate and grow wings. With a powerful flap downwards, he ascended into the air and started flying towards me!

An ability user!

Immediately, I gathered a heat point and tried to send it onto to one of his wings. But surprisingly, there seemed to be an foot long forcefield surrounding his body that my flame couldn’t cross! And seeing this, the man started laughing unrestrainedly.

Winged man- “Hah! When I saw the video of you picking off the mercenaries one by one, I thought you were a f*cking professional! But I bet you haven’t even read the basic handbook yet! An easy kill!”

Arrogance seemed to be seeping out of the man, and he swooped down like a black hawk.

Rolling out of the way, I looked back to see that he landed on the skyline and mashed his fists together.

Winged man- “Let’s see how long you can last!”

He flapped his wings horizontally, and he was propelled forward like a bullet. Extending his arms outwards, he swept for my legs. Jump!

I jumped over him, and charged after him, a flame concealing the golden glow on my hand. But he turned with what seemed to be an inhuman agility and flew off the skyline.

Me- “Running away like a little coward, huh? Yeah, an easy kill.”

I surrounded my middle finger with flame and put it up. His facial expression distorted angrily, and he screamed,

Winged man- “I’ll kill you!”

He swept down again, this time at double the speed. But I was prepared. With a golden aura surrounding my hand, I slammed the red button, and the ultra bright lights flashed out, blinding him.

However, his momentum carried him to me, and we knocked into each other. The chain broke, but I grabbed a hold of him with my golden aura. If I was going down, I would take him with me!

‘60 ft’ The winged man screamed and tried to claw me off. His strength was rapidly waning, so I kept my hold.

‘50 ft’ The man gave up fighting with me, and tried to flap his way upward. It was somewhat effective at first, but he couldn’t keep it up. It turned into a glide.

‘30 ft’ The man grabbed me as well, and rotated in mid air with his wings, so I was positioned below him.

‘10 ft’ I rotated my body furiously, as the strength of a man he once had turned into the strength of but a child.

“Crack!”

Something broke when he fell, but at least I was safe. So I rolled onto the floor, and attempted to lift myself up. Shots of pain came from all over my body, but I was able to stand up. But unfortunately, the battle wasn’t over.

She-hulk- “You! I’ll rip you apart!”

She advanced towards me slowly, cracking her knuckles. And the only exits I could take were behind the woman. No escape.

I backed away slowly, until I was within the seating area. If I could set fire to the seats, maybe I’d have a chance at disorienting her or escaping. But before I could formulate the best way to do this, the woman entered the row I was in. Letting out a roar, the woman started charging at me from the other end.

Without having time to think, I vaulted over sets of seats and set fire to them as I jumped over. Then, not wasting any time, I ran towards the exit. But unfortunately, the woman was not intimidated by the wall of flame. Bursting through like a tank, she smashed the burning seats out of her way and continued her rage filled charge towards me!

Holy sh*t! Was that even possible? If I got hit by that, I didn’t need to think about the consequences. Death would be the only option.

I jumped over another row of seats, and I changed my end target. If I continued to run towards the exit, she would eventually catch up to me. Instead, I ran for the guns that they threw off to the side. Sprinting forward in a final, desperate dash, I saw that the guns were right in front of me! I could make it!

But suddenly, she burst into the row of seats I was in and screamed,

She-hulk- “You can’t escape!”

I dove for the weapon and rolled into a crouching position, the years of martial arts training finally having an effect.

Me- “Take this!”

I pointed the sub machine gun at her and held the trigger. But it wasn’t shooting! The safety was on!

I hurriedly flipped the safety off, but by then it was too late! Without thinking I rolled out of the way, and she smashed into the wall a moment later. The debris smoked up the area, but before I could aim and fire again, a giant hand extended from the debris and grabbed the gun!

She-hulk- “Die!”

She pointed the gun at me, but a flame point was already down the barrel!

“Bang!”

The gun misfired, and she staggered back, disoriented. Now was my chance!

With a golden glow on my hand, I charged forward and grabbed onto her leg. The woman screamed sharply, and she smashed me away, sending me flying onto the floor. But it wasn’t nearly as powerful as the blows from before. She was deteriorating.

However, she still limped forward, murder clearly visible in her red eyes. No!

I struggled to get up, but unlike last time my body wasn’t listening to me! There was only this huge pain in my body, leading me to believe that not just one rib was broken from that punch. I was dying.

But that didn’t change the fact that I was struggling against that fact. I wasn’t going to die, not today!

And as I was struggling, the woman was clearly on her death throes as well. She couldn’t even limp anymore, and was rapidly turning older and older before my eye. But one thing didn’t change. That was the bone deep hatred for me, clearly visible in both her eyes.

However, death came to her in the next moment. The light in her eyes faded, and she went limp, not moving.

Seeing this, the fight went out of me, and I slumped against the wall, waiting for reinforcements to come. But in the next moment, I slipped into unconsciousness.

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A black world surrounded me. But as time went on the blackness was no longer blackness. Instead, it was a world of memories. My life flashed by, starting from the fight and then moving backwards.

The memories continued on, and I was but a bystander, watching. But suddenly, memories of Chloe surrounded me. Her sweet smile, the feeling of her hand, our first kiss, all of them were playing at once. And suddenly, I screamed out,

Me- “I want to live!”

Something in me was awakened by this desire, and suddenly a warmth went throughout my whole body. It was comfortable...

But suddenly, the warmth turned into a burning heat, and I was forced out of the world of blackness. And in the next moment, my eyes opened.

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Author’s note 2- Ok, I admit. That was very cliche… But, it needed to happen. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed my ninja chapter, and I will see you guys later with another chapter!